Child welfare agencies across the nation are faced with many challenges, including ever increasing demands for child safety and public accountability. In spite of the talents, dedication, and efforts of a great majority of child welfare professionals, child welfare programs lack the mechanisms and resources to effectively enforce accountability, monitor integrity, and provide quality assurance for its most critical stakeholder group: children in placement.
Currently, there are few effective strategies for ensuring that caseworkers' required visits to foster homes are performed according to regulation and that these visits are documented properly, professionally, and with integrity. Perhaps more importantly, child welfare agencies do not have systems in place to effectively monitor, record, and report the whereabouts and well being of children in placement on a regular basis. Beyond the important goal of tracking children, child welfare agencies do not have systems to track delivery of case plan services and events for children. Such systems are needed to provide accurate reporting and tracking of case plan deliveries and to close the window of time during which children might befall misfortune.
Florida's Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protection wrote on Jan. 13, 2003 in a Progress Report that the State needs to analyze “capacity to support field operations and community care providers with quality assurance, quality monitoring and fiscal staff.” (Page 9). The report also highlighted the need to make medical records available to caregivers page 11); provide immediate notification in the case of missing children (page 14); and maintain current photographs of children for identification purposes (page 16). All programs and systems that are currently lacking and sorely needed.
Unfortunately, child welfare agencies, like virtually all government agencies, are presently cash-strapped. Even if systems addressing the needs described above were to exist, most agencies would be unable to afford them. Therefore, such tracking systems should assist the state in achieving federal funding reimbursement opportunities. Monitoring, recording, and reporting capabilities are needed to effectuate compliance with federal grant and reimbursement monies.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems and achieving one or more of the above stated goals.